Absentee vote bill gains ground

Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday that the Senate committee on suffrage and electoral law has endorsed a draft committee report allowing green card holders to vote in national elections under a proposed absentee voting law.

"The consensus of the senators is for a law that is broad and comprehensive in reach and this is the reason for the inclusion of green card holders," explained Angara, the committee chairman.

An earlier proposal sought to exclude green card holders "because there is the clear intent to give up their Filipino citizenship."

Angara said a majority of committee members, however, believe that the proposed law should cover all those who have not given up their Filipino citizenship, including green card holders.

"There are circumstances that have forced these Filipinos to seek immigrant status and get green cards. But such act does not mean that they no longer want to be Filipino citizens," Angara said.

With the inclusion of green card holders in the proposed absentee voting, around six million overseas Filipinos are expected to register for the 2004 general elections.

Angara said there is already bicameral consensus on major points of the proposed absentee voting law, to assure its approval before the 2004 elections. Both chambers agreed that Filipino citizens abroad could vote only for president, vice president, senators and party-list representatives.

The draft committee report will be the version that will be used by the committee in consultation meetings with associations of overseas Filipinos and workers.

Consultations are scheduled in Tokyo, Honolulu, San Francisco, Rome, Bahrain and Qatar.

Angara said that a complementary measure, the Poll Modernization Law, is also a top priority of Congress to make sure that the proposed absentee voting law will not be misused for electoral fraud. – Efren Danao